local music library on my android phone no longer recognized by sonos

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I have had couple of Sonos roam’s for about six months now. I installed the app on my android phone. On my android phone, I have a micro SD card, that has my music library, thousands of songs. When I first was using the Sonos app, I would start it up and it would give me the choice of Sonos music, say the free stuff, Sonos radio or choosing my music library. Recently, when I start the app, I no longer see my music library that is on my android phone as a choice, only Sonos radio. I have had to upgraded a few times since I have owned them and can’t pinpoint exactly, but expect this change in behavior came after an upgrade. I looked through some of the community threads regarding issues with connecting to a music library but they all seemed to be connecting to a network connected music library device. My library is in the same device I am running the Sonos app on, my android phone. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks

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N

nik9669aAnswer

Senior Virtuoso

On my device feature has ended, apparently due to a change made by Google. More info and some alternative methods are detailed here. https://en.community.sonos.com/product%2Dupdates/on%2Dthis%2Ddevice%2Dfor%2Dandroid%2Dcontroller%2Dno%2Dlonger%2Dsupported%2D6882524

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M

Maoli

Lyricist I

Did you just like your own post? The use of the word “camouflaged” and “real cause” flag at least some paranoia to me.

I read Samsung Music player still works for Sonos, so if you have a Samsung phone your in luck. Youtube Music is also an option, as is playing music that’s on a PC.

Well, I don't know, what flags paranoia to you. For further explanation:

"camouflaged": sonos signals a necessary service update, but did neither inform about deactivating base functionality, nor leaves a choice to forego this update in sonos app.

"real cause": you are welcome to express your (different?) opinion

Samsung, YouTube: many users bought a system open to Android (as I did) without restrictions to particular brands. Moreover Youtube is an additional, commercial service which isn't necessary for local hosted music at all.

To transfer sonos' behaviour to a "ralley" example: buy a car of a well-known brand. One year later you are informed, that you are not allowed to use the built-in driver seat anymore, but you are welcome to buy a new one from a recommended company…

buzz

Grand Maestro

The fundamental design inspiration for SONOS was for the SONOS players to play music without involving a computer. In 2005 phones/pads were not as developed as they are now. In 2005 there was a dedicated SONOS controller. As phones/pads developed, SONOS users resented being forced to purchase a SONOS controller, when they felt that their phone/pad could provide this capability for “free”. Keeping with the original design concept, the phone/pad SONOS controller did not play music, it sent commands to SONOS. In the early days of SONOS, storage, processor capability, and wireless connectivity were so limited that it was not practical to store and play large libraries of high quality music from a phone/pad. SONOS players and music storage on a computer or NAS drive was one of the few practical means of playing high quality music from a large home library. Comprehensive music services, such as Spotify were a glimmer.

As phones/pads started integrating music players, SONOS had to resort to a series of hacks in order to provide control features, such as Lock Screen, that native phone/pad Apps offered. Android has traditionally welcomed hacks, Apple discourages hacks. Eventually, Android manufacturers and Apple decided to monetize music and SONOS is not in their plan. Plus, SONOS has a large patent portfolio that allows SONOS to seamlessly support a large collection of players. SONOS makes this seem easy, but it is not — unless you license the SONOS patents. At this point it’s not a big deal for a phone/pad to support a couple speakers, but it is a big deal to support a couple dozen simultaneous players, each playing different music. This is where SONOS has an advantage.

The bottom line is that the hacks SONOS had been using for the Lock Screen controls are no longer practical.

Personally, I don’t want my computer/phone/pad directly involved in playing music. As I work on a software project, the computer/phone/pad might crash or need to be rebooted while my SONOS music continues uninterrupted. I never used the Lock Screen controls until this discussion started and I have kicked the tires in order to better understand the issue. For me the Lock Screen controls as currently implemented in native Android and Apple phone/pad App’s are useless. These controls might be slightly more attractive if I listened in only one room, but they don’t integrate well with a phone call.

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